Iron Maiden selling out shows for Australian tour ’08!

Tickets for IRON MAIDEN’s first Australian tour in 15 years went on sale at 9am this morning and are selling at a phenomenal rate! Dainty Consolidated Entertainment has just announced that a second and final show has been added in Melbourne. This extra date is definitely the final Melbourne show, no further dates will be added.

Promoter Paul Dainty said "Ticketek advised me this morning that they have had the longest queues at their ticket outlets for any on-sale for ages."

The Australian leg of the ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME’ World Tour 2008 will open in Perth on February 4 and continue through to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (full details below).

The ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME’ World Tour 2008 will see IRON MAIDEN perform major concerts in 20 selected cities on five continents in seven weeks including India, Japan, North America, Central and South America, and, of course, Australia.

The tour then continues with more concerts in North America in late May and June before finishing with a third leg in July and August encompassing major stadiums and festivals all over Europe. During the tour the band is expected to play to well over one and a half million fans and travel close to 100,000 miles.

In an historic first, Iron Maiden, their 60-strong crew and support staff and over 12 tons of equipment will be travelling around the world en masse for the first leg of the tour in a specially commissioned and converted Astraeus Boeing 757 decorated with Maiden and Eddie designs! Vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who is a qualified Airline Captain flying for Astraeus Airlines, will pilot the plane on its epic mission, flying over 50,000 miles.

To tie in with forthcoming 2008 releases on DVD of the classic ‘LIVE AFTER DEATH’ and ‘MAIDEN ENGLAND’ concert videos (more details coming soon) this tour, aptly entitled ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME’, will revisit the band’s history by focusing almost entirely on the 80’s in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which will be based around the legendary Egyptian Production of the 1984-85 ‘Powerslave Tour’. This will arguably be the most elaborate and spectacular show the band have ever presented, and will include some key elements of their Somewhere In Time tour of 1986/7, such as the Cyborg Eddie.

This Day in Sludge History

Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar live on stage for the first time when he was appearing at The Astoria in London, England. It was the first night of a 24-date tour. The Fender Stratocaster burned on stage by Hendrix sold for £280,000 (British pounds) at a 2008 London auction of rock memorabilia. (1967)

Def Leppard released their fifth studio album 'Adrenalize', the first by the band following the 1991 death of guitarist Steve Clark. Former Dio and Whitesnake guitarist Vivian Campbell, was brought in as the newest member. (1992)

Born on this day, Mick Ralphs, guitarist, Mott The Hoople (1948) and Angus Young, Scottish-born Australian guitarist with AC/DC (1955),